First Published in Christian Voice December 2017
Jude 1:3 Beloved, when I gave all diligence to write unto you of the common salvation, it was needful for me to write unto you, and exhort you that ye should earnestly contend for the faith which was once delivered unto the saints.
This article will show that the faith was delivered to the British Isles earlier than many think.
It was here in the fifth and sixth century. We are going to suggest it was flourishing well before that. Yes, Pope Gregory the Great sent Augustine of Canterbury to convert Britain’s Anglo-Saxons in 596 AD. However, Christianity had already been well-established in the west and north of Britain for centuries.
TRADING GOODS AND IDEAS
Ideas have been traded along with goods and materials ever since men set sail. And our ancestors have been seafaring from the Stone Age. Ezekiel 27 proclaims judgment on the city of Tyre, in present-day Lebanon. But the same chapter is also a historical record of Tyre’s trading routes during the late Bronze and early Iron Age. These included ivory from East African and Indian coasts and ebony from West Africa:
Ezek 27:15 The men of Dedan were thy merchants; many isles were the merchandise of thine hand: they brought thee for a present horns of ivory and ebony.
Bronze Age sailors could navigate thousands of miles. Legends say the Christian faith reached Britain’s metal-trading ports in the West Country and South Wales soon after Pentecost. From there it spread onwards during the first century AD. The legends are entirely plausible. Tyre also traded in metals from the Isles of Tarshish in Ezekiel’s time:
Ezek 27:12 Tarshish was thy merchant by reason of the multitude of all kind of riches; with silver, iron, tin, and lead, they traded in thy fairs.
All those metals could be found at various places in Cornwall and Somerset and along the South Wales coast. It is at the quite possible that ‘Tarshish’ is the British Isles. Copper in particular was plentiful in Somerset and Glamorgan. Cornwall had the largest reserves of tin anywhere in the world. To have a middle-eastern Bronze Age the people needed bronze. Bronze is an alloy of copper and tin. The British Isles could and no doubt did supply both.
TRAVELS OF THE APOSTLES
The book of Acts shows Paul and Luke taking the Gospel all around the Mediterranean. But from that towering book we learn very little about the missionary excursions of the other apostles. However, there are legends that Thomas took the Faith to India, Lazarus to France. We know from Acts that Philip sent belief in Christ into Ethiopia. That is north east Africa. Why would the Christian faith not reach west and south down the West African coast and north across the Bay of Biscay? We think of the sea as a barrier. The men of that time saw it as a highway.
So if I am correct, the Gospel reached the western parts of the British Isles shortly after the first Pentecost. The first serious persecution of Christians began in 64AD under Emperor Nero. The new faith was challenging the Roman religion and its cult of the divinity of the emperor. In any event, as the Romans swept north and west in Britain, the Christian faith would be protected by geography. Archeology has revealed Roman devotion to their gods in Britain. The cult of Minerva was rife at Bath, for example. However, there are a few enigmatic Roman marble floors with Christian symbolism. These show some well-to-do families had quietly embraced the Christian faith.
ROMANS RAN OUT OF STEAM
But although the Romans over-ran England, they ran out of steam on the Northern and Western fringes. The topography of Wales for example prevented Roman rule from becoming established except in Monmouthshire, Flint and along the coast. The only Roman cities in Wales were at Carmarthen and Caerwent. From Carmarthen the Romans sailed up the Towy river, but struggled to penetrate far inland.
When we visit neighbours just seven miles away, we negotiate four hills and traverse three rivers before we reach them. By car it is easy, but imagine that journey by second-century ox-cart. So I suggest the Celtic Christians kept alive the faith once delivered unto the saints away from Roman eyes.
FALL OF THE ROMAN EMPIRE
When Constantine declared the Roman Empire Christian in 312AD, it did not make an immediate impact on the ground in Britain. And in any case the Roman Empire was on its last legs. It was running out of energy and money. Its coinage had been debased to the point of becoming worthless. Some Roman emperor back in the glory days thought it would be a good idea to put his head on the coins. But when the coinage was debased, the emperor was seen as debased as well.
Christ could not or would not save the Roman Empire, but God was already working his purpose out. From the 360s AD attacks had begun in the north and east of Britain. Picts attacked what is now Scotland and Scots threatened Ireland. Franks came from France and Saxons invaded from Germany. All were fully set to plunder the accumulated wealth of Roman Britain.
By the 5th century AD barbarian tribes were attacking other parts of the Roman Empire as well. Emperor Honorius decided the Roman legions in Britain were needed elsewhere. He sent a letter to the people of Britain telling them the soldiers had to leave. They must fight the Anglo-Saxons and invaders on their own. From 388 – 400 AD the Romans begin to leave Britain and in AD 410 the last Romans left.
CELTIC CHURCH EMERGES
At the beginning of the fifth century, the Romans left Britain. They had not trained the British to defend themselves. Consequently, the next time the Saxons tried to invade Britain they succeeded. During the second half of the fifth century more and more Anglo-Saxons arrived to take land for themselves.
This is exactly the time when the Celtic church began to emerge from the darkness. The Celtic Christian leaders were often from noble families and they were determined. These men of God were ruthless at taking over Iron Age burial sites, historic healing wells and pagan festivals. They built churches and monasteries on the burial sites, claimed the healing wells for Christ and rebranded the festivals. That is why we celebrate the birth of Christ in midwinter rather than when our Saviour was actually born.
In the fifth century Patrick was evangelising Ireland, founding what is now the Diocese of Armagh. By the sixth century men like Saint David, Illtyd, Teilo, Gwinio, Brynach, Columba, Petroc, Samson, and Christian women like Keyne (or Cain) were building monasteries and spreading the Gospel all over Wales. Columba was at Iona in Scotland. The Celts travelled extensively between Cornwall, Wales, Ireland, Scotland and Brittany. They were driven to the western and northern fringes by the invading Saxons. However, the same countryside which kept the Romans at bay prevented a total over-run of the Celts by the Saxons.
THE COUNCIL OF WHITBY
Interestingly, Bede complains in his Ecclesiastical History of 731AD that the Celts hated the Saxons so much they would not even preach the Gospel to them. That may have an element of truth. Then again, Bede, although a great historian, was not immune from his own Anglo-Saxon agenda. Above all, we know a Celtic man of God, St Cedd, was sent by Lindisfarne to evangelise the Saxons in Essex a century earlier. The church he built in 634 AD at Bradwell-on-Sea stands to this day. (If you want to be really Celtic, pronounce his name (and the word ‘Celtic’ itself) with a hard ‘C’. And the ‘dd’ is pronounced like the ‘th’ in ‘Lather’)
Equally, paganism was on borrowed time. By by the time Augustine arrived in 596AD, the Saxons of Kent were overdue in hearing the word. We are way before the Great Schism, let alone the Reformation. In these first two of three centuries basic creeds of the church had been established. Moreover, British bishops had participated in the early councils.
There were differences of opinion between the Celtic church and the Roman or Saxon church. Historians say these arose over the date of Easter and how to cut the monastic tonsure. King Oswiu of Northumbria was so concerned he convened the Synod of Whitby in 664AD. It was held at Streonshalh (Streanæshalch), later called Whitby Abbey. The Synod decided to follow the customs of Rome rather than those practiced by the Celtic monks at Iona and its satellite institutions. But the bigger issue was central authority, which horrified the Celts. They did not do things like that. We can argue about whether the Synod achieved a good balance. All the same, the Celts accepted its outcome. What is undeniable is that Christianity had so penetrated these lands that it was a devout Christian king who convened it.
CHRISTIANITY BUILT OUR LAWS
The Christian faith was not regarded at that time as a private matter for individuals. It affected the whole of life. There was no concept of a secular realm where men passed the laws they pleased. Pleasing God was what mattered. So it happened that Alfred the Great 849 – 26 October 899 became King of Wessex in England from 871 to 899. He was the first King of the West Saxons to style himself ‘King of the Anglo-Saxons’ following his defeat of the Danes.
What many Christians do not know is that way before Tyndale, Alfred the Great had the Pentateuch, the Psalms and the Gospels translated into the English language of his day. Not only that, he based his laws, or ‘dooms’ as they were styled, on the laws of God. His civil laws followed the general principle of restitution (‘bot’ in old English) as found in the Bible. We are seeing here the foundation of English, indeed of British, statute law. It would become so much part of our legal fabric it would become known as ‘common law’.
The law of God was not always followed to the letter. During the Tudor period methods of execution were not Biblical. Neither was execution for theft, trial by ordeal, slavery nor transportation, which would all follow. But nevertheless, one could appeal to the Christian faith in matters legal. Blackstone, the eighteenth-century lawyer, could say: ‘Every law is or ought to be according to the laws of God.’ And equally, the most unlikely of monarchs, devout Roman Catholic Henry VIII, would usher in the Reformation and sow the seeds of the Protestant faith to Britain.
THE ATTACK ON THE CHURCH
So we can say, with some justification and a few caveats, that the faith once delivered unto the saints has been established in these islands for almost two millennia. Furthermore, it informed our lawmaking for almost eleven hundred years. Only during the reign of our present queen has parliament begun actively to legislate against the laws of God. It has enacted secularist laws in direct opposition to divine precepts. During the exact same period the historic faith has been attacked by secularism in the church in our land.
Many are the battles for the faith once delivered unto the saints which are occurring within various churches in our land today. A ship is good in the sea, but the sea must never be in the ship. Equally the church in the world is good, but the world in the church will do for the church what the sea would do to the ship.
Secularists within the church are tenacious, insisting on vote after vote until they get their way. Rather than guard the faith once delivered, they insist the faith must change with the times. Rather than the Christian faith informing our laws, as happened under Alfred and his successors, secular laws must inform the Christian faith.
RETREAT INTO INDIVIDUALISM
The secularists need to be fought in both the Church and the State. The Church is the body of Christ in our land. It is charged by God to preach the word and minister the sacraments. How can any church or denomination be that and do those things if it has parted company with the true faith? So we praise God for and pray for those standing firm, not only in the established churches in England and Scotland but in every denomination under attack.
The danger of secularists overturning the faith once delivered in the established and reformed churches is that these still retain their prophetic calling. They are seen as having an influence on law-making and morality throughout their jurisdictions or spheres of influence. They are listened to when they speak for the Almighty and when they speak against him.
But there is a greater danger in the Evangelical and Pentecostal churches. Many of these deny the Christian prophetic calling altogether. Some even deny the laws of God. Either way, they have nothing to say to the world at large. They have no input to politicians and no influence on law-making. They may say they are intent on redemption, important as that is. Nevertheless, the Gospel has become entirely individualistic to them. Such a doctrine is also far from the robust, all-conquering faith that the Apostle Jude was talking about.
THE CHURCH IS NOT ALL OF LIFE
Let us also remember the Church, essential as it is, prophetic as it should be, is not all of life. Almighty God has delegated his authority to certain spheres. The church is one of those. However, the family is God’s first societal institution:
Gen 2:24 Therefore shall a man leave his father and his mother, and shall cleave unto his wife: and they shall be one flesh.
So far as the church is concerned, we can see an embryonic form of collective worship two chapters on:
Gen 4:26 And to Seth, to him also there was born a son; and he called his name Enos: then began men to call upon the name of the LORD.
Although some would say the Church as such was really instituted by Christ himself:
Matt 16:18 And I say also unto thee, That thou art Peter, and upon this rock I will build my church; and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it.
NATION STATE INSTITUTED
What cannot be denied is that God established his societal institution of the nation state immediately after the flood. A rule of law is implicit in God’s establishment of the ultimate penalty:
Gen 9:6 Whoso sheddeth man’s blood, by man shall his blood be shed: for in the image of God made he man.
And we see the division of the world into nation states in the very next chapter:
Gen 10:32 These are the families of the sons of Noah, after their generations, in their nations: and by these were the nations divided in the earth after the flood.
God gives the state, not the church, the duty to administer his civil law. But he has given the church the prophetic duty of calling those in power to account and reminding them that there is one higher than they:
John 19:11 Jesus answered, Thou couldest have no power at all against me, except it were given thee from above: therefore he that delivered me unto thee hath the greater sin.
EVERY THOUGHT CAPTIVE
God Almighty has charged them to administer his laws for the public good:
Rom 13:4 For he is the minister of God to thee for good. But if thou do that which is evil, be afraid; for he beareth not the sword in vain: for he is the minister of God, a revenger to execute wrath upon him that doeth evil.
Indeed, the Gospel, the faith once delivered unto the saints, is all-encompassing:
2Cor 10:5 Casting down imaginations, and every high thing that exalteth itself against the knowledge of God, and bringing into captivity every thought to the obedience of Christ;
The early Christians in these islands wanted to take every thought, every idea, captive for Christ.
That is evident in everything they did, stamping out paganism in all its forms and converting kings to the Christian faith. We have already heard of seventh-century king Oswiu of Northumbria. But king Ceredig in Wales was a Christian in the fifth century. Augustine baptised king Aethelbert of Kent in 601AD. But a hundred years earlier the sixth-century Celtic prophet Gildas was at is peak. He wrote a scathing religious polemic ‘De Excidio et Conquestu Britanniae’. We find him laying into contemporary kings for their sins. Our Christian forebears knew the Christian faith was far more than an individual matter.
FAITH ONCE DELIVERED
To sum up, the Christian faith built this land of ours and it is under attack both in church and state in our time. May God give us the courage and the confidence to proclaim his word in every sphere, preach his word, pray for repentance in ourselves , in the church and in the state, and hold fast to the faith once delivered unto the saints.
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